By Sonora C. Kellestine
Long ago, two sisters lived with their mother in a little cottage. The elder, Bertha, was like her mother, lazy and snappish, but the younger, Bess, was sweet as spring water. One day, their mother called for peaches, so Bess ran out to the orchard to get some. Bertha never fetched anything. Just as Bess was plucking the first peach, a voice called, “May I have a peach?”
Bess turned to see an old woman smiling up at her. Bess smiled back and handed her one without a second thought. After the first bite, the woman whispered, “Your kindness does you credit. You are like a pearl found among thick shelled oysters; therefore, when you speak pearls shall fall from your lips.” With that, the woman walked away, munching contentedly on her peach. Bess whispered “thank you” at her retreating figure, and two pearls fell at her feet. Picking them up in wonder, Bess ran home to tell her mother. When she arrived and told her story, her mother said nothing, only stared greedily at the pearls. Then she called, “Bertha!” When the girl arrived, her mother told her to go to the orchard and pick peaches. “When you are asked for one, give it.” Bertha left, dragging her feet and complaining.
When she arrived at the orchard she pulled angrily at the fruit, until a voice called, “May I have a peach?”
Bertha glared at the woman who had asked. “We can’t afford to give peaches to every beggar that wanders through here.”
Frowning, the woman said, “You are like a sharp pebble under foot, irksome but worthless and forgettable. Therefore, when you speak, pebbles shall fall from your mouth.”
Bertha snorted. “Very funny.” Two pebbles fell at her feet. In horror, she stared at them, then fled back home as fast as she could. When she got there, she told her mother and Bess her story, pebbles falling from her mouth and angry tears streaming down her cheeks. When she finished, her mother turned to Bess, saying, “How dare you trick my daughter, ungrateful child. Get out! I never want to see you again.”
Bess turned and rushed out the door, tears streaming down her face. She was paying so little attention to where she was going, that she ran right into a young man coming the other direction.
“I’m so sorry,” she said hurriedly. Three perfect pearls fell to the dusty path. The youth handed her a handkerchief and asked why she was crying. When she told him her troubles, he offered her a job at his home, the palace, for he was indeed a prince. Bess looked into his gentle eyes and gasped, “Yes, please. I’ll do anything.” So the young man took Bess home.
Years later, the prince asked Bess to marry him, and she said yes. Bess and the prince had a happily-ever-after, but her mother and sister spent the rest of their days sweeping stones out of their house and quarreling. RR